April Fools Joke Misfires; Company Receives Offers to Buy Live Dinosaurs
kingsnake.com received a shock when its annual April Fools prank
misfired, leading a number of individuals and consumers to believe
that they were actually offering live dinosaurs available for sale.
"I was completely floored when we began receiving actual order inquiries
for baby dinosaurs" said kingsnake.com's founder Jeff Barringer.
kingsnake.com, long known to be the portal for hobbyist and commercial
reptile breeders, received a shock when its annual April Fools prank
misfired, leading a number of individuals and consumers to believe
that they were actually offering live dinosaurs available for sale.
"I was completely floored when we began receiving actual order inquiries
for baby dinosaurs" said kingsnake.com's founder Jeff Barringer.
Known as the reptile industry hub and hosting the web sites of hundreds of
reptile and other animal breeders, strange inquiries for animals
are considered the norm, but dinosaurs?
kingsnake.com put up a "mock" breeders page on Monday, for a company
purported to be breeding and producing a number of different dinosaur
species, including Brontosaurus, Iguanadon, and the Velociraptor made
infamous in the Jurassic Park movies and books.
"In the past we have had people from private individuals to zoos, casinos,
and theme parks looking for all sorts of animals, including animals like
sloths and penguins. I had no idea how many people would actually believe
our April fools joke was real."
While most of the sites users got the joke, Barringer says that they
received almost twenty "real" inquiries from as far away as Hong Kong
wanting to purchase a range of the prehistoric animals.
"What was most shocking is that most of the emails were requests
for people wanting to purchase Velociraptors. You'd think people would
have learned a bit more from the movies. I would suspect they wouldn't
make good pets."
About OnlineHobbyist:
A privately held corporation, OnlineHobbyist.com, Inc. was formed in
September of 1999 based on the assets of the former kingsnake.com
publications. OnlineHobbyist is a builder of virtual communities based in the
Silicon Hills of Austin Texas and currently specializes in pet communities,
including kingsnake.com.
Contact: Jeff Barringer - jeffb@kingsnake.com
OnlineHobbyist.com, Inc.
508 East Howard Lane #25
Austin, Texas 78753
(512)990-1092
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